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LETTER 



HON. JAMES r. SIMMONS. 



BY A RHODE-ISLAND CONSERVATIVE. 



Sir, — I have read the letter which, on Friday last, you ad- 
dressed ostensibly to Henry B. Anthony, Esq. the editor of 
that good Law and Order paper, the Providence Journal. Un- 
der the shallow pretence of defending yourself against the as- 
sault of an humble paragraphist, you, a distinguished Senator of 
the United States, seize an occasion to throw yourself into the 
hot strife which now agitates your native State. No man can 
mistake, in this matter, your real purpose. Availing yourself, 
somewhat adroitly, of the influence which belongs to the 
character and position of the editor of the Providence Journal, 
you seek to reach and to change the minds of the intelligent 
and true-hearted Whigs of Rhode-Island. You will fail, Sir, 
I venture to predict, you will signally fail, in this desperate en- 
terprise to coin political capital for yourself, and to withdraw 
the Whigs from their hitherto unfaltering allegiance to the 
principles and to the cause of Law and Order. I can hardly 
apply to your letter and to your conduct, that style of decorous 
remark which, even amid political contests the most exaspera- 
ted, it is my aim to preserve. Could I detect, throughout the 
whole of this elaborate production, one sign of that " noble 



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2 

rage" which fires noble bosoms — one graceful and fervid ex- 
pression of high moral sentiment — one flash of thought or of 
feeling which told that you were striving, not to conceal a 
crafty intent, but to suppress strong passions, I should well 
know how to pardon any error into which a generous vehe- 
mence had betrayed you. But, when I find your letter to be 
cold, arid and Jesuitical, full of cunning appeals to obsolete 
prejudices, and of covert thrusts at men whom you choose to 
denounce, because you cannot govern them, — when I find you 
laboring, by gentle and sinister plausibilities, to persuade the 
Whigs that they may, without danger and without dishonor, 
throw themselves into the embraces of the Dorrites ; that the 
monstrous and meretricious union between Whiggism and 
Dorrism, — a union founded upon no principle, and cemented 
by no bond but that of a common selfishness, is better for the 
State than the sober, legitimate and honorable tie which binds 
together Law and Order Whigs and Law and Order Demo- 
crats, I cannot help sharing in the general and virtuous indig- 
nation which you have provoked in the bosom of every true 
and honorable man. 

Something of noble grace. Sir, yet lingers around the ruins 
of our moral nature — something that makes us hate selfishness 
and despise cunning, — something that reminds us of our rela- 
tionship to higher beings, and kindles in our hearts sympathy 
for truth and for right. You seem, Sir, to make no account of 
this element in our moral being, — the secret of all wide moral 
influence, the inseparable adjunct of all great and effective in- 
tellectual power. You seem to forget that " winding and 
crooked courses are the goings of the serpent," — that ''clear and 
round dealing is the honor of a man's nature, and that mixture 
of falsehood is like alloy, which may make the metal work the 
better, but itembaseth it."* Conquer, Sir, if it be not too late, 
this perverse habit of your mind ; superinduce upon your 
moral constitution higher principles of action, or you will miss 
the loftiest heights of statesmanship ; you willbe regarded as 

' Bacon's Essays. 



3 

one who is "good only in canvasses and factions;" you will 
live in the recollections of those who are to come after yoi7, 
only as an expert manager of the politics of the day ! 

\>; Your acknowledged intellectual ability, your sagacity as a 

party politician, and your commanding position as a Senator in 
the Congress of the United States, entitle your counsels, in 
relation to our State politics, to the candid and respectful con- 
sideration of your fellow-citizens. While I thus cheerfully re- 
cognize your claims to be heard with candor and attention by 
those whom you have so long and so ably served, neither I nor 
others can yield such implicit deference to your opinions as to 
adopt them, with passive servility, in preference to the opin- 
ions of men not less wise and thoughtful than yourself. — 
Those of your fellow-citizens who compose an immense ma- 
jority of the Law and Order party have stood by you, in sun- 
shine and in storm. In the earlier stages of your political life, 
they looked to you with a strong hope that you would not 
disappoint the brilliant destinies which they foresaw were in 
reserve for you. They hailed your elevation to the Senate of 
the, United States as if your elevation were, in some sort, 
their triumph. They have watched, with friendly solicitude, 
your course as a Senator, and they have felt that some portion 
of the just fame which you have acquired, in counsel and in 
debate, was reflected upon themselves. In the progress of 
events, another tie between your political friends and yourself 
sprang into being. Treason and anarchy menaced the State, 
and, like other good citizens, you espoused the cause of Law 
and Order. You participated largely in the formation of our 
excellent constitution. You put forth your energies in favor 
of its adoption by the people. You assented, it was always 
thought till now, to the organization of the Law and Order 
party. You have hitherto sustained the nominations of that 
party. This, Sir, was once your position. What is your posi- 
tion now ? I ask the question not without sorrow. Your 
letter to the editor of the Journal furnishes, to this question, a 
significant and most intelligible reply. Without giving your 
friends a decent ^^order of notice,-^ — without asking their coun- 



4 

sel, — without an expression of solitary regret at the severance 
of old ties of political brotherhood, you have abandoned those 
who, through evil and through good report, have cherished and 
sustained you ; and, what is more, you have abandoned them for 
the confidence, the sympathy, and the support of the Dorrites ! 
I look for you in vain, standing side by side with tried political 
friends, on " the conservative platform," giving to those 
friends counsel, and lending them aid. I look for you in vain 
among those true men who still rally around that glorious ban- 
ner which they reared in a season of sore calamity, which, 
once and again, they have followed to victory — which, who- 
ever may prove recreant, they will be the last to desert ! 
Where are you now, Sir ? Where, and with whom must I ex- 
pect to find you ? Contending, side by side, with the Dorrites, 
and under whatsoever plausible pretences you may seek to 
justify your flagrant defection, contending, in effect, to pros- 
trate the Law and Order party in the dust, and to achieve for 
Dorrism its long-sought-for triumph over the dignity and the 
laws of the State ! This, Sir, is your position. It needs no la- 
bored definition — by no flimsy apology can it be rescued from 
dishonor ! 

You no longer attempt to shelter yourself behind conven- 
ient ambiguities of language, which convey to different minds 
very different and sometimes opposite meanings. You no 
longer give forth those dark, unintelligible intimations about 
your course, which, like the famed responses of the ancient ora- 
cles, are designed to be obscure. You stand forth, at last, 
the declared champion of Charles Jackson, the Dorrite candi- 
date for the office of Governor, and the avowed, aye, the vi- 
tuperous opponent of James Fenner, the Law and Order Qan- 
didate for Governor ! You are exerting all your skill in party 
tactics to help Mr. Jackson and to harm Governor Fenner. In 
highways and in by-ways, in the shop and in the manufactory, 
in town and in country, in the farm-house and in the hamlet, 
you devote yourself to the work of persuading people that " the 
pacification of the State" can be secured only by the election 
of Charles Jackson, and by the consequent triumph of Dorr and 



of Dorrism ! I mourn, Sir, sincerely do I mourn, that , fresh as 
you are from the associations of gentlemen and of men of 
honor in the Senate of the United States, you have returned 
to Rhode-Island, not to help her in an hour of trial — not to 
tread in the good old ways — not to stand firmly upon the good 
old platform — not to fight bravely under the glorious old ban- 
ner — but to abandon tried friends — to renounce past profes- 
sions — to violate plighted faith ! The fact. Sir, is known that 
you assented, cordially as it was thought, to the nomination of 
Governor Fenner. The fact also is known, and you cannot 
deny it, that, only a few months since, you volunteered, in the 
presence of a confidential friend, the most solemn protestations 
that you would " vote for Governor Fenner as long as he liv- 
ed." Are not these, Sir, your very words ? 

Governor Fenner was unanimously, and with singular cor- 
diality, nominated for re-election by the Convention of the Law 
and Order party. In that Convention you were represented ; 
to that party you belonged — nay, more, you professed yourself 
to be in favor of maintaining the original organization of that 
party, as understood and expounded by Mr. Charles Jackson. 
What, then, has wrought this sudden and extraordinary 
change in your principles, purposes and conduct ? How can 
you. Sir, as a consistent politician, as an honorable man, sup- 
port Charles Jackson, the Dorrite candidate, in opposition to 
James Fenner, the Law and Order candidate ? 

Let me tell you, Sir, the history of this transaction will not 
be confined to Rhode-Island. The record of your defection 
will follow you to Washington. Senators, high-minded Sen- 
ators, whose eyes beam bright with honor, and who " feel a 
stain like a wound," will look askance at you for quitting the 
path of open dealing and of elevated principle to hatch 
treacherous plots with treacherous men — to brood in secret 
conclave, with the enemies of Law and Order, over schemes 
intended to fix the seal of popular reprobation upon the prin- 
ciples of Law and Order ! 



1 lament, Sir, that you have descended from the heights of 
true civic renown, to stir this Dorrite cauldron, and, by your 
potent incantations, to make it bubble. 1 lament that, forget- 
ting your true position as a statesman, you stand before the 
country upon a false and paltry issue, as the ally of the Dorr- 
ites, their " guide, philosopher and friend !" 

Your friends. Sir, will not follow you. No man of an erect 
and manly spirit, no man who acknowledges the validity of 
party ties, no man who obeys the instincts of nice personal 
honor, can follow you ! 

It is asked, on all sides, by right-minded and honorable men, 
why, on your return from Washington, you did not seek to 
accomplish, through the agency of your friends, your views 
as to the true policy of Rhode-Island in reference to Dorr ? 
Why seclude yourself, by night and by day, in secular sea- 
sons, and in sacred seasons, with the confederates of- the Dorr- 
ites ? Why lend yourself to the Dorrites, upon an issue which 
they have made in order to obtain possession of the political 
power of the State ? Have they changed their nature ? Can 
they abandon their principles ? Is it safe to trust their pro- 
fessions — to place any confidence in the resolutions ^\\^ pledges 
of men whom, as past experience proves, not even solemu 
oaths can bind ? Is it a time to entrust political power to 
those who demand as a right, the unconditional liberation of 
Dorr, and who would hail it as a triumph over Algerine cruel- 
ty and injustice ? Is the mode in which a convict shall be 
liberated from the State Prison, an issue which ought to be 
agitated by the people of Rhode-Island in their primary capa- 
city ? Finally, is it wise, or right, or safe, to give the Dorrites 
the power to liberate Dorr ; and can " the pacification of the 
State" be secured by placing the purse and the sword of the 
State in the hands of a party which has once arrayed itself in 
arms against her government and people ? These, Sir, are 
plain practical questions, asked by plain practical men — and 



to which, with all your ingenuity, you will find it hard to 
give a satisfactory answer. 

I have not attempted an answer to your letter — an abler pen 
than mine has undertaken that task. I have aimed merely to 
describe its drift — and to indicate the true position in which 
you have placed yourself. A few words more, and I have done. 
I like old friends, Sir, as much as you seem to like new issues. 
I have confidence in the integrity and genuine Rhode-Island 
spirit of the Law and Order democrats who, foot to foot, and 
shoulder to shoulder, stood by us in the hour of our utmost peril. 
For one, I would scorn to cast oflf these men — or to exchange 
them for new and untried friends. With them I am willing 
to sink or to swim. With them I am willing to share what- 
ever of prosperity or of adversity may be in reserve for those 
of us who have made common cause in defence of the consti- 
tution of Rhode-Island, and in the maintenance of the princi- 
ples of Law and Order. If you prefer an alliance with the 
Dorrites, you must be left to follow your own taste, and to be 
governed by your own convictions of duty. Your old friends, 
Sir, will part from you, not without some natural regrets. 
They will travel back, in memory, to the triumphs which, in 
years gone by, they and you won for conservative doctrines 
and for conservative men. As Whigs, they will mourn that, 
in a season of trial to the grand distinctive principle of the 
Whig party, " their own familiar friend, in whom they trusted, 
who did eat of their bread, hath lifted up his heel against 
them." They sorrow, however, most of all, that, weary of 
the noble strife for Law and Order, you have joined yourself, 
in disastrous and ignoble fellowship, to the men who have 
only waived their radical principles, that, under circumstances 
more favorable, they may re-assert and establish them. They 
tried to save you, but in vain. You would have none of their 
counsel — you despised all their reproof. To your new friends 
and to yourself they are therefore compelled to leave you. 
Upon what a poor device, Sir, have you staked your character 
and fortunes as an American statesman ! Whatsoever tempo- 



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rary advantage it may promise to win for you, be assured, it 
cannot, in the end, achieve that true fame and that abiding 
popular favor, which are reserved only for unshaken constancy 
to Principle, to Honor, and to Truth. 

A Rhode-Island Conservative. 



Providence, R. I. April 1, 1845. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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